This essay is dedicated to Helen and Steve Ray-Shick
who are
giving sanctuary to so many
abused and neglected farm animals.
In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, a forerunner of the feminist movement, published her Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be so only because they lack education. Her views were regarded as absurd. ‘It is just as absurd to grant women rights as to grant them to animals’ wrote distinguished philosopher Thomas Taylor. What would the world look like today if we had followed that line of reasoning and not moved ahead with the Women’s movement?
Similarly, Jacy Reese *, author of The End of Animal Farming: How Scientists, Entrepreneurs and Activists are building an Animal-Free Food System, believes that “by the year 2100, all forms of animal farming will seem outdated and barbaric.”
Many books have been written about the atrocities that take place on factory farms, such as Michael Pollan’s the Omnivore’s Dilemma and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals. This knowledge helps a person switch to a vegan diet, but that is not enough. Only 5% of Americans do not eat animal-based food. Knowing that something is wrong doesn’t necessarily translate in making it right.
Ending Animal Farming is not an Impossible Dream
Reese’s book shows that ending animal farming is not an impossible dream, but it lacks the how, not the why. It is a masterfully crafted call to action and asks the reader to consider (and join) one of the most important and transformational social movements of the coming decades: ending the inhumane system of animal farming.
The reasons why we should give up the totally immoral practice of using live sentient beings to fill our dinner plates is already part of society’s discourse. Reese alludes to the why, by saying that it will never keep up with population growth. That it will continue to pollute our planet beyond repair and that the amount of suffering it causes is unacceptable to any civilized society.
There are a 100 billion farmed animals at any one time on this planet, ten times more than human beings and 99% of them live on factory farms. Billions of chickens spend their shortened lives in battery cages so small that they cannot turn around or lie down. Broiler chickens get fattened up until they collapse under their own weight. Billions of pigs are kept in gestation crates during their entire pregnancy and piglets’ tails are cut off without anesthetics. The sad tale goes on and on..
Although for me, this would be enough reason to end animal farming, this is just the beginning of the story. This book gives me hope because it follows what Reese calls the ‘effective altruism’ approach. You can have altruism come out of your ears, but if your caring doesn’t produce any results, what’s the point?
Factory farming has only been around since the early 20th century, when antibiotics and technological advances made it possible to cram huge amounts of animals into smaller and smaller spaces, with the resulting abuse and suffering. Animals were no longer seen as individuals grazing on family farms, they were seen as machinery inside a huge factory, whose goal was to be as efficient as possible. The welfare of the animals was completely lost.
An argument for perpetuating animal farming is that it is too embedded in our economy. And yes, embedded it is. Factory farms often own all the stages of the processing: ownership of a hatchery, a feed mill, grow-out sheds, slaughter and processing or packing plants. Factory farms influence our dietary guidelines and their influence on politics has created Ag-gag laws that prevent undercover investigations from making abusive practices public.
It is clear that there are incredible hurdles to overcome before we can end animal farming. But Reese shows us ways to overcome these hurdles. He makes no bones about advising activists to follow the mantra: 'if you cannot beat them, join them'. “To don business suits and enter the corporate boardroom, tuck the public outrage sparked by undercover investigations into manila folders and slam them onto the desks of CEOs with demands for concrete policy change”.
Cognitive Dissonance
“Forget the pig is an animal. Treat him just like a machine in a factory”—Hog Farm Management, September 1976.
Knowing that sentient, conscious beings, capable of suffering, joy and grief are used as machines and then end up as a slab of meat or a carton of eggs on the supermarket shelf, causes consumers to develop what psychologists call ‘cognitive dissonance’. Like an addict who has to justify his habit, we rationalize our consumption of animal based food, knowing full well that what we eat contributes to that suffering.
The Four N’s
How does one justify eating meat, knowing that your actions causes so much harm? Reese sums up this ‘cognitive dissonance’ with what he calls the ‘four N’s’: Eating meat is Normal, Necessary, Nice and Natural.
Eating meat is normal because ‘everybody’ does it. It is dependent on social pressure. But it wouldn’t take much for school cafeterias or airlines to serve vegetarian meals as the default and animal-based meals as a ‘special order’. Normal is what a culture decides it is; it is not set it stone.
Necessary
Is it necessary for good health? Ask the vegan Olympic athlete, the vegetarian body builder, the mothers, grandparents and children who do not eat meat. In fact reducing consumption of animal products is now considered a healthy option. There is no compelling reason to think animal products are necessary for good health.
Nice
Yes it is nice to eat meat. It tastes good. But plant-based alternatives are now so advanced that they closely match the taste of meat (and dairy). The Beyond Meat burger tastes more like meat than regular meat. Technological advances virtually guarantee that plant-based food will taste just as ‘nice’, if not now then in the near future.
Natural
Is it natural to eat meat? That is the most stubborn N of all. Humans have been eating animals for a long time and you could argue that it is natural for us to do so. But what is so natural about eating meat that comes from a factory farm? It is full of chemicals, antibiotics and growth hormones. Besides, the idea that natural is ‘good’, is a logical fallacy. Murder, rape and abuse has always existed, it is human nature, but is it good? *
Cellular Agriculture
Who eats Meat?
36% of the population in India is vegetarian, compared to 5% in the United States. (See Vegetarianism by country). That means that a person in India eats a steak once a month as opposed to an American who eats a half pound steak every day. On the other hand, India has the second largest number of farmed animals in the world (China is number 1) and their animal welfare laws are very weak.
The focus on individual diet made the outrage at animal farming synonymous with vegetarianism and veganism, which alienated many potential supporters. The image of a vegetarian as white, female, affluent, well-educated and liberal does not match research findings. There are as many poor, conservative men without a college degree who are vegetarian or vegan.
Reese advocates for a shift beyond the individual and towards institutional change. Slavery would still be with us if the movement had not morphed from the individual to the group. We are all in this together: animal, human and planet. Expanding our moral circle to include farmed animals will leave us no choice but to abolish what some have called the worst crime in human history. leave comment here
* Reese is the co-founder of the Sentience Institute,an organization that researches effective animal advocacy.
** You would be surprised to know how many startups are involved in the cellular agriculture movement. The current technology poses a dilemma for some vegetarians/vegans because the cells are taken from a live animal and the medium in which they have to grow consists of fetal bovine serum. But recent advances have made it possible to substitute a plant based medium.
